---
title: F12 Render
order: 7
---

With the Chisel engine active, `F12` renders the exact Chisel surface through the scene camera into Blender's Render Result, like any other render engine. `Ctrl + F12` renders the animation.

![an F12 render: per-object colours over the World's viewport colour](../assets/f12-render.webp)

## What it renders

- **Camera:** the scene camera's projection (sensor fit, shift, clip planes, pixel aspect), perspective or orthographic, into the *Combined* pass. A scaled camera renders the framing you see in camera view.
- **Surface:** every shape exactly, at full quality in one pass. Rendering the same frame twice gives the same image. *Max Steps*, *Hit Threshold* and *Max Distance* from [Quality](quality.md) apply; *World Cell Size* and *Subdivision Level* do not.
- **Shading:** *Rendered* shading (per-object colours and the [Matcap](matcap.md) panel's choice and tint), whatever the viewport shows. The image is scene-linear, as a Cycles render is, so colour management treats both the same way.
- **Size:** *Resolution X*, *Resolution Y* and *%* from *Output Properties ▸ Format*. *Render Region* and *Crop to Render Region* work as in Cycles.
- **Visibility:** objects and collections disabled in renders, and collections excluded from the view layer, are left out. The viewport eye does not matter. Shapes with Chisel's *Render* switch off are left out too.
- **Background:** the World's *Viewport Display* colour at full alpha, as in the *Rendered* viewport; without a World, Blender's viewport grey.

## Limits

> [!warning] Only Chisel shapes render
> Regular meshes are not part of the frame, and a scene without Chisel objects renders fully transparent. To render meshes and Chisel shapes together, use *EEVEE* or *Cycles* with the [proxy mesh](display.md#proxy-mesh), or [Convert to Mesh](../operations.md#convert-to-mesh).

- Without a scene camera the render stops with *"Chisel F12 render needs an active scene camera."*
- The first render of a session waits while its [shaders compile](../getting-started/installation.md#shader-compilation); `Esc` cancels.
- On a very heavy single object, renders after the first can take several times longer than in 4.1, because every frame draws the exact surface.
- An output size beyond the graphics card's texture limit stops the render with an error that names the limit.